Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, left, greets Manny Pacquiao as he arrives at The Venetian Macao Resort for his Nov. 23rd fight against Brandon Rios. Pacquiao won the fight. / Chris Farina, Top Rank

by Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports

Four days shy of his 82nd birthday, Hall of Fame boxing promoter Bob Arum is coming off an exhausting week-long trip to the island of Macau, where his meal ticket, Manny Pacquiao, ended a two-fight losing streak with an impressive victory against Brandon Rios.

For most 82-year-olds, the travel would be brutal. But Arum is no ordinary octogenarian. In fact, the CEO of Top Rank says he's energized by spreading the gospel of the Sweet Science around the world, especially in China, where boxing is still a novelty.

Asked if his sport is heading in the direction of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is spreading its brand of mixed martial arts around the globe, Arum snaps off a quick answer.

"I don't know if boxing is going that way, but Top Rank is. You'd have to be a fool not to," he says. "You have the whole beautiful big world out there, with the market yearning for a product, like China, Russia, the Ukraine, Japan. If you sit back and concentrate only on the U.S., you're missing the best opportunities.

"I made six round trips to Asia this year. Three to Macau, one to Tokyo, one to Beijing and one to the Philippines. I don't find it tiring. I love taking the sport of boxing and expanding it to other areas.

"I was in Los Angeles last week, and I had about six meetings. All of them were either with Russians, or Ukrainians or Chechnyans, I mean it's crazy what's happening over there. All of that keeps me going because it's not the same-old, same-old.

"Putting on fights in the United States is great, but it gets repetitious because you're not doing anything innovative. We're doing innovative things, and our production is so far above anybody else in boxing or UFC. You watch the telecast of Pacquiao's fight with Rios, that production was incredible. That was all ours, not HBO."

Arum has no problem following the UFC's lead, saying the organization is approaching the global market the right way.

"I think the UFC has done a great job and handled it like the business model that it is," he says. "They realize, I think, more revenue from Brazil than they do from the United States. Brazil is a tremendous market for mixed martial arts, as it can be for boxing. So for a business person not to realize that, he'd have to be out of his mind."

During a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports this week, Arum said he has plans for six shows - albeit small, local shows - on mainland China in 2014 plus more shows in Asia, Russia and Ukraine.

"We are endeavoring to develop boxing talent in China. It's not easy but we'll be able to do it by putting on local shows."

Arum was pleased with the first major boxing show from Asia in Pacquiao-Rios.

"It was very successful," Arum says. "We didn't do as well with the pay-per-view as we would have done if the fight was in the U.S., but the revenue from Asia more than made up for it."

One of Top Rank's recent spate of global signings, two-time gold medalist Zou Shiming of China, fought on the HBO-televised portion of the show, winning impressively.

"Boxing is strong globally," Arum says. "Look at who we signed: gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine), gold medalist Egor Mekhontsev (Russia), gold medalist Ryota Murata (Japan), Zou (China), a silver medalist from Brazil (Esquiva Falcao). We're actively pursuing fighters from all over the world, because we want to be the biggest global promoter in the world. That's what we've become."

The U.S. boxing market, meanwhile, is stagnant, he says.

"It's a good market, but it's certainly not growing. Boxing in the U.S. is largely dependent on two premium networks (HBO and Showtime). And as the (aging) audience for boxing begins to die out and is not replaced by the younger generation, which looks elsewhere for its sports, how long is the support from the premium networks going to last?

"And if that disappears, boxing is really in trouble. It is no accident that the U.S. (males) in the last Olympics won absolutely zero medals, let alone a gold medal. Boxing is not a sport in the U.S. that is producing the talent. It's coming from elsewhere."

Yet Arum is bullish on boxing's future, at least worldwide.

"Boxing is not dead," he says. "Boxing is so alive, it is so popular all over the world, that if you give them the right presentation, the right production, if you make it like we know how to make it, they go crazy.

"The arena in Macau totally sold out. We had thousands of people who came over from the Philippines, didn't even have tickets, watched it on closed circuit in Macau just to be there."

Arum touched on other subjects involving Pacquiao:

Can a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Pacquiao fight be made? "Yes, if people stop posturing. Absolutely. It can happen. It's stupid if it doesn't happen. They owe it to the sport. What, is Mayweather going to fight Amir Khan? Who gives a (expletive)? We've announced we're willing to make anything happen. Now somebody has got to contact us so we can sit down and explore how it can happen. Isn't that the way normal people deal? You can't wave a wand. I've said unequivocally, we're ready to sit down and see if a deal can be reached."

Would you be willing to talk to Mayweather to make it happen? "Floyd or his representatives, of course. This idea that Floyd hates me or I hate Floyd is poppycock. Maybe the people around him are saying that. But Floyd and I, and certainly Todd (duBoef, Arum's stepson and president of Top Rank) and Floyd, have always had a wonderful relationship. These so-called writers are saying, 'Well, it can't happen, because Floyd hates Bob Arum.' Floyd doesn't hate me, like I don't hate him."

Were you surprised Pacquiao looked as good as he did vs. Rios?"No. I visited him in General Santos three weeks before the fight, and I could see he was a different guy. As best I could figure out, the reason was simple. When he's in L.A., he trains all day and goes home at night (day in the Philippines). So he stays on the phone all night, talking and texting to his wife and political people. He gets no sleep. Sleep-deprived, and tired, and that's why the cramping, and all that sort of stuff. He was not getting the proper rest. But when he trains in the Philippines, he has to go to sleep at night, because everyone else in the Philippines is sleeping."

Can you clear up Pacquiao's financial situation? "That stuff with the Philippines taxes (the government claims Pacquiao owes $50million in back taxes from five fights in the USA in 2008-09) is ridiculous. We've supplied them with all of our records showing that we've deducted and withheld 30% of Manny's purses and remitted it to the IRS. We have receipts from the IRS, everything. The vice president of the Philippines has called them on the carpet for doing that (Pacquiao himself calls it harrassment). Manny owes no tax or very little tax in the Philippines because he paid the taxes on his income that doesn't come from the United States." The U.S. and Philippines have a treaty where its people can't be double-taxed.

Is Pacquiao broke or close to it? "Manny will always be in a situation where he doesn't save what he earns. He still is in (typhoon-ravaged Tacloban), giving out food and money from his own pocket to victims from the purse of his last fight. He has a big home in the best area in the Philippines, millions of dollars in property and millions of dollars in assets. But does he have (what) he should have if he prudently saved his money instead of giving it away? No. But what am I going to tell him? Don't give your money to charity? Don't reach out to help your fellow Filipinos? How can I tell him that?"

Does he have to keep fighting? "If he wants to keep giving away money to charity, of course he does. How else is he going to generate that kind of money? If he stopped giving money to charity and lived off his assets, he could live a very comfortable, affluent life. But he can't, giving $5-10 million dollars a year away to charity."